Mascot & Magic: Revival

Spoiler: Winning Vote

[X] Plan shanagan
-[X] Void Body: (10 Sparks)
-[X] Void Mind: (15 Sparks)
-[X] Void Heart: (20 Sparks)
-[X] Void Vault: (5 Sparks)
-[X] Void Door: (10 Sparks)

---

You pushed the Sparks into the Ember, and watched as it grew and grew in intensity before it became a true monochromatic flame that let loose a roar of literal deafening silence. You watched as the flame spread and embraced Kuuhaku, covering her body. Time slowly started to move forward again as the kindling process finalized. When time resumed its proper course, the metaphysical fire faded out of the physical realm to reveal Kuuhaku’s champion form. Kuuhaku was clad in smooth pale white armor over a vantablack undersuit that peeks through the joints and midsection. Over that was a pale white hooded cloak with a black interior that looked big enough to cover her body down to just halfway down her shins, with black triangles lining the edges of the bottom of the cloak and the opening of the hood. The strangest part of the outfit, you thought at least, was the smooth white mask that covered Kuuhaku’s face, the only notable feature on its blank surface was the eyes. The eyes of the mask seemed to be filled with an inky black darkness, like they were portals leading into a deep abyss.

As Kuuhaku stood up, she brought her left hand up to the mask, which vanished in a burst of monochrome flame to reveal her face. Held in her other hand was a gun that was pale white with what looked like a vantablack line with branches running down the sides of the gun towards the mouth of the barrel starting from a black circle. Looking at it, you knew that it didn’t fire bullets, but hardened and sharp spikes void matter. Kuuhaku looked at her gun and ran her hand across the almost organic looking material of the weapon. There was a look of understanding in her eyes, along with recognition, as if she knew on an instinctual level what it was and how to use it.

Spoiler: Void Spike Gun

“… This is mine.” Kuuhaku said before she shifted her attention to you. “I feel… different. Better, I think.” She raised her left arm and watched as it shifted into a solid limb made of pure void matter, turning completely into a material that was even darker than vantablack. It seemed to almost passively drink in the light around it. Another moment and the fingers sharpened into long talons, and then morphed into a single shape spike. Finally, it rippled as it reverted back into its original shape. Kuuhaku wiggled her fingers in fascination. “… Cool.”

You cleared your throat to get Kuhaku’s attention back on yourself. “You are now a Champion of Sanctum Aetherius, the sworn enemy of the Accursed and a protector of the world from supernatural threats. Your powers give you an edge in battle, but be warned, you are not invincible. I will aid you however I can, and in my case, I can aid in more ways than my predecessors.” You said, and Kuuhaku listened to your words. “I will be able to fight alongside you and heal your wounds. Even if you should perish, I can bring you back to fight and live again. However, even with my power and your awakened magical abilities, alone the two of us cannot hope to end the Accursed. Thus, I will seek out others who hold an Ember like you have. Do you believe that you can work alongside others?”

Kuuhaku stared at you with her blank expression, you almost wondered why she was given a mask with such an impeccable poker face, before she nodded. “As long as they aren’t jerks, I don’t mind.” She then blinked and tilted her head. “… Can I… pet you?”

… You should have expected this, really. Your golden fur is quite luxurious and was very nice. You nodded, allowing your first Champion to pet you. Kuuhaku kneeled down and did so, softly petting your head. “… soft.” She said in an awed whisper. It was… nice actually, and you could feel your tail acting on its own as it wagged back an‘Showtimed forth. Curse this body’s unconscious reactions to physical stimuli! Kuuhaku stopped and stood up to resume inspecting her outfit, her weapon having vanished in monochrome flame.

“If you are wondering how to change back, just say…” You poked at what your ‘command phrases’ were. Each Mascot has their own, something about it being a reflection of their nature or a method of marking each deployment. You weren’t sure if it was one of those reasons or something else, and you didn’t really care. You soon found it, and mentally raised an eyebrow. “‘Showtime, Cut’, go on and give it a shot.”

“Showtime, Cut.” Kuuhaku repeated the phrase, and her whole outfit went up in monochrome flames that faded away to reveal the pajamas she was wearing earlier. “Oh, it worked.” She said, stretching her arms.

The call that breakfast was ready was made and Kuuhaku went over to the dining table while you started to further review the information you had on the city of Hoseki in greater detail. Hoseki and the Island it was on was made a decade back to handle potential overpopulation, but who made it was interesting. A group of seven wealthy families with old money banded together to fund everything and somehow managed to afford it. They were located in the northern section in large family complexes that separated from even the nice neighborhood of mini-mansions. If those were mini-mansions, then the clan complexes were literal palaces! It actually boggled your mind, how could anyone be that wealthy? Moving down to the city section, as in Hoseki proper, you quickly noticed that a full 1/5th of the city was taken up by the massive Golden Dragon Central Park, named for the large gold dragon statue in the center of the lakes of the forested park. You physically blinked when you realized that the statue was located precisely in the exact center of the island.

That alone was rather strange, but then you noticed that the city had four schools located in each cardinal direction and they were all built with their entrenches facing directly towards the park and by extension, the statue. You quickly noticed that each school had its own statue as well that was also facing in the direction towards the gold dragon statue. A black tortoise to the north, an azure dragon to the east, a vermilion bird to the south, and a white tiger to the west. Well, that was something investigation worthy in your opinion. Additionally the northwest, northeast, southeast, and southwest parts of the city each had a hospital, a police station, and a fire station that covered their respective sections. There was also a set of trains that ran around the city, carrying people around the different sections in both clockwise and counterclockwise routes.

There was a fairly large space reserved as a graveyard between the city and the rich neighborhood, with a number of graves set up already over the decade. To the east and west borders or the city, were huge docks. Each dock basically went all the way from the north end of the city all the way down to the south end of the city. Fishing ships, cargo ships, tourist ships, name it and you would probably be able to find it at the docks.

Then there was the southern part of the island, where there were both farms and a sort of small ‘greenhouse city’. Combined with fishing, the southern section of the island provided a full 50% of the food for the island, the rest being from imports. There was a smaller graveyard area and a village/town around the farms, called Kinben.

You would need to figure out which school Kuuhaku went to, as that would also give you a general area to work with for your initial patrols. You recall that one of the powers you invested Sparks into would give Kuuhaku access to portals for instant travel, so perhaps you could have a larger coverage than you assume. You’ll need to see the exact limits, but you were sure it would be a boon. Ah, if only you could kindle yourself, maybe you could unlock even more powers that could help you-

[Spark Count: 5]

“… What.” You said quietly in bafflement as you stared blankly at nothing while the information filled your head.

[Spark Count: 5]

WHAT!? HOW!? THIS WAS NOT RIGHT, THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE!!!

No, calm down, you can’t afford to panic. Think, Do-Gi, think! How do you have Sparks? Mascots, Starborn like yourself weren’t supposed to get Sparks! It just didn’t happen! So why did you have the knowledge that you had Sparks!? The only ways for Sparks to be gained was during the ignition of a Champion’s Ember and killing Dregs-

…
……
………

Oh.

You killed a Dreg, and now you have Sparks.

There have clearly been more unforeseen consequences to your actions than you first realized. You were going to take a moment to scream internally now.

AAAAAAAAAA-

---

“So yes. It is best we plan out how to spend our time while we can. Obviously you have school to attend, but I am sure that we can still work out on something to do for the rest of the day.” You said, the picture of calm composure and tranquil peace on the outside. You think Kuuhaku is aware of your earlier internal outburst with the way she’s giving a look of understanding and silent support, but that has worrying implications so you’re going to shelve that for a bit.

“Well, Kuuhaku goes to Azure East. She’s had good grades so far and her teachers have said good things about her academic ability.” Yama said, with the kind of voice that made you think he was trying to advertise Kuuhaku, like she was some kind of car that a dealer was trying to get you to buy. Which was…yeah, concerning.

“I’m certain that Kuuhaku will be very cooperative with whatever schedule you come with, she's a real team player.” Kinu on the other hand had been acting like she was trying to convince you to hire Kuuhaku, like she was trying to do a job interview for Kuuhaku. Which was a weird comparison, since you technically already ‘hired’ Kuuhaku as a Champion.

Though speaking of plan, you should come up with something before you lose your patience.

---

Welcome to Day 1. You have a total of 3 Action Slots. Plan Format Required.

[ ] Patrol: Go out on patrol for Dregs, or even other supernatural problems. Chance to Encounter Dregs. Chance to Encounter ???
-[ ] Northeast Hoseki
-[ ] Southeast Hoseki
-[ ] Southwest Hoseki
-[ ] Northwest Hoseki
-[ ] Agricultural Section
-[ ] “Noble” Section
-[ ] Golden Dragon Park

[ ] Scout Recruits: Search for Champion Candidates that you could potentially recruit. Chance to Encounter Candidates.
-[ ] Northeast Hoseki
-[ ] Southeast Hoseki
-[ ] Southwest Hoseki
-[ ] Northwest Hoseki
-[ ] Agricultural Section
-[ ] “Noble” Section
-[ ] Golden Dragon Park

[ ] Recruitment Drive: Go after an Ember of Magic and try to Recruit the person it’s attached to towards the cause. Can select the same option multiple times.
-[ ] Northeast Hoseki
-[ ] Southeast Hoseki (5 Embers)
-[ ] Southwest Hoseki
-[ ] Northwest Hoseki
-[ ] Agricultural Section
-[ ] “Noble” Section
-[ ] Golden Dragon Park

[ ] Training: Help a Champion improve in some way. (Will default to Kuhaku.)
-[ ] Combat Training: Train a Champion to improve in Combat.
-[ ] Mystic Training: Train a Champion to improve their Magic.

[ ] Investigation: This city and the island it was on is a little strange. Maybe you should investigate deeper.
-[ ] Gold Dragon Statue: It sits at the center of a lake, which is in the center of a park in the center of the city. That it also sits exactly at the center of the island itself makes you wonder what the deal is.
-[ ] Mystic Attraction: Something about this island has an attractive effect to anything with a magical and supernatural nature, at least that’s what you can sense. Looking deeper into what might be causing it might help you.
-[ ] The 12 Rings: One of the major objectives, if you can get to these rings before the Accursed or their minions do, it will be a major win.

[ ] Something Else: Sometimes, there are options that aren’t obvious at first. (Write-In).

 

Spoiler: Winning Vote

[X] Plan Combat Training & Obvious Leads
-[X] Training: Help a Champion improve in some way. (Will default to Kuhaku.)
--[X] Combat Training: Train a Champion to improve in Combat.
-[X] Investigation: This city and the island it was on is a little strange. Maybe you should investigate deeper.
--[X] Mystic Attraction: Something about this island has an attractive effect to anything with a magical and supernatural nature, at least that’s what you can sense. Looking deeper into what might be causing it might help you.
--[X] The 12 Rings: One of the major objectives, if you can get to these rings before the Accursed or their minions do, it will be a major win.

---

Well, getting a head start on the retrieval part of your mission and figuring out what the deal with this attraction effect was seemed like a good idea, as did training Kuuhaku in combat to improve her fighting capabilities for future battles. She is your only Champion at the moment, and while the transformation comes with an instinctive knowledge of how to utilize any weapons they had access to, it wasn’t the same as actually learning and understanding how to swing a blade or shoot a gun, though it did give at least a foundation to start building up from.

You think you will do the investigations first, give Kuuhaku the day to relax mostly after what happened last night and let it all truly settle into place. The time it took to properly process things like the deaths of one's guardians, having the supernatural and mystical side of existence revealed to them in such a violent manner, witnessing previously mentioned dead guardians being resurrected, and then becoming a magical warrior who will do battle with the very monsters that tried to kill them was a lot to take in.

You were sure that she would be fine, and if not, you would help her. It was part of your duty as a Mascot after all, having a healthy mind was very important to maintaining composure in the face of adversity and the many monsters she would face. Numbers would help too, but you would get around to recruiting more Champions later. There were five other Embers in this section of the city alone, after all! Maybe if you were lucky, there would be enough potential Champions in each section that you could have a team per section, which would certainly be nice! And time consuming to manage probably, but everything had pros and cons, it was simply a matter of taking the option with the most amount of pros and the least amount of cons.

Hmm, you seemed to have gone off on a small mental tangent. Well, time to focus on the first thing you wanted to look into, the mystical attraction effect of the island. It was strange, there was this pull you could feel even now, as though trying to keep you on the island and not let you leave. It wasn’t really a compulsion though, it wasn’t like the island was pulling off some kind of siren song for magical stuff. No… this was more like… either magnets being pulled together or maybe a gravity well that dragged things towards it that got caught in its field of influence. You had left the apartment and were doing a fly over of the city, senses extended out as much as you could to try and find out where the pull might be originating from or at least was strongest in its intensity.

Spoiler: Mystic Attraction Investigation

DC: 60
Roll: 20

Failure

But… honestly, you couldn’t pick up anything that looked like an origin point that might be generating the effect, which meant your search method either wasn’t working or it was somewhere beyond your ability to detect. There was also the chance it was hidden somehow from the kind of scanning you were doing, which wouldn’t be that surprising. Your senses were made more detecting magic in the form of Embers, the Dregs, or the Accursed. If you knew some proper divination rituals or spells, that might help too if you lacked the natural senses needed to do so. Either of those would end up helping immensely in investigating something like this. Still, even this failure gave you possible leads to look for. Now then, you should see if you would have any luck on maybe tracking those rings.

The Twelve Rings, or The Rings of Calamity as some have called them, were artifacts created by the Accused before they were transformed to try and become the God-Kings and God-Queens of creation, and in order to create them they slayed entities of immense mystic potency and sealed their essence and souls into a ring that would be wielded by one of their number. This meant that each ring would have a unique signature, different from the rest of the rings. You didn’t know if the sealed essence of the beings was still conscious or ‘alive’, and personally hoped that wasn’t the case. Being trapped in a ring for countless centuries without any form of contact with another being, it sounded like a special kind of hell that would drive anyone mad that… well, okay, you would probably inflict it on the Accursed if you could. You redefined your search parameters and began to look out for any signatures that might really stand out.

Spoiler: 12 Rings Investigation

DC: 70
Roll: 91
Success! Lead Gained

Your senses immediately picked up the presences of twelve entities, each of them different, but they all had the feeling of something that was so incredibly ancient, like being in the presence of an old temple that was left behind by a long vanished civilization. You tried to pinpoint their exact location but found that there was some sort of obfuscation effect that disrupted your attempts to get an exact read. At best, you could only get a rough idea of where the rings were. There was two rings in the ‘noble neighborhood’, one ring in the founder’s palace compounds, three rings in the city itself, and a staggering six rings in the southern agricultural area of the island,. You didn’t know exactly where each was within those sections, but you at least knew where they were in general beyond ‘on the island’. Still, having half of them all on the south side… you will probably end up spending a lot of time in that area, good thing Kuuhaku happened to live relatively close to it.

You could at least check to see if any rings were in the part of the city where Kuuhaku and the other five Embers you sensed lived. Later though, as you had to go and start your combat training with Kuuhaku as it was starting to get late, you had spent most of the day flying over the island several times with your senses at full blast while also having to focus it towards finding something specific to try and get a lead. You were at least making progress though, and that had to count for something.

You return to the apartment to find Kuuhaku eating some instant noodles, and with her guardians missing. “Where are your guardians, Kuuhaku?” You asked, getting her attention in the process as she was slurping up some noodles.

“They went to get a medical checkup.” Kuuhaku said before she resumed devouring her meal. You sniffed the air and detected the smell of something.

“Is that teriyaki I smell?” You asked, and Kuuhaku gave you a slow blink before nodding.

“Beef teriyaki flavored, some flavor powder must have been left out.” She said, looking towards the kitchen before returning to look at you. “What did you do?”

“I did some investigation, got some leads, hit some dead ends.” You said as she finished her food. “Now I plan on using the rest of the day to help you with some combat training.” Kuuhaku’s eyes gained a small spark to them when you said that. “Your transformation gives you some instinctive ability on how to fight using your weapon and your magic, but having a real understanding of what you're doing will be better than just relying on that alone. Plus, it can carry over to when you're not transformed.”

Kuuhaku nodded and stood up. “Showtime, Action.” She said, monochrome flames engulfing her form before fading away to show her Champion form. “What will we be doing?”

“Well, I have a few ideas.” You said as you thought about how to go about this. You could focus on improving her accuracy and skill using her weapon, the spike gun. You could also teach her how to fight unarmed in a somewhat basic brawler style if she’s disarmed or gets into a fight when not transformed. Alternatively, you could teach her how to DODGE! … Huh, that came out of nowhere. Anyway, you could also try teaching her how to analyze her enemies in combat in order to figure out their patterns, weaknesses, and strengths. Or you could come up with something else

How do you train Kuuhaku?
[ ] Train Ranged Accuracy: Work to improve Kuuhaku’s accuracy and skill with her weapon.
[ ] Train Unarmed Combat: Teach Kuuhaku how to fight without a weapon, given your own lack of skill, the best you can do is a brawler style.
[ ] Train Evasion: You can work to help Kuuhaku improve her ability to evade attacks and dodge in combat, avoiding damage is always better than tanking it:
[ ] Train Analysis: You can teach Kuuhaku how to observe and take notice of patterns during the heat of combat, forming a profile on her opponent’s strengths and weaknesses.
[ ] Something Else: You could come up with more ways to train Kuuhaku, and try them out. (Write-In)

---

Ring Locations
Noble Neighborhood: 2 Rings
Founder “Palaces”: 1 Ring
Hoseki City: 3 Rings
Agriculture Sector: 6 Rings